John Croft Visits Universidad Andres Bello

During a recent visit to Santiago, John Croft, the Australian consultant and creator of the Dragon Dreaming method, visited the Campus Creativo of Universidad Andrés Bello. During his visit he spoke with students about the work he has done throughout his career to create resources that help people realize their dreams. “Valuing the human and collective intelligence earned through years of experience is key. There is nothing that we can’t do if we combine our intelligence,” he said.

The method he created was heavily influenced by the ways of Australia’s Aboriginal culture and calls on practitioners to have an understanding of where they want to go before starting off in any direction. “The first thing you have to do to realize your dreams is share them”, assured Mr. Croft. “The construction of teams working towards common goals will make the process more effective.”

The method he created is inspired by social and environmental activism, an understanding of living systems, chaos and complexity theory, and the wisdom of ancient thinking. He began to create the method in Perth in the 1990s and it has been actively deployed and used since 2013. The method directs students to look at all the various interactions that influence any idea or project.

“People commit mistakes and don’t see them. Everybody that has an idea wants to go directly from the dream to the execution and don’t stop to think about the act or the celebration,” said Croft, who added, “Planning is key. In my life I have seen thousands of projects, but most are relegated to the archives. Probably 90 percent of ideas fail as they are being created. With Dragon Dreaming, we noticed that people don’t plan for their potential mistakes, which has to be an essential part of any potential plan.”

Croft indicated that more than 6,000 people are trained in the Dragon Dreaming methodology and are working around the world with more than 30,000 different projects, in fields including education, health, business, and government.